The 3 sisters

After the sisters spent the day with us at customs we took them out to diner as a thank you. The next day they acompanied us to the Airport in Santiago while Mish drove Berta´s car. The round trip, including waiting at the Airport for David to clear customs, took all day. The following day Anita and Berta again acompanied us while Mish drove to their friends house in the city of Con Con about an hour north of Valparaiso. Their friend had offered to let us store Davids bike in his garage, although the ¨Bodega¨was too small for the Bike and the laundry machine already in it.

What I´d like to illustrate with the 3 sisters is the amazing kindness they showed to 3 strange gringos who offered nothing in return other than gratitude and a great sense of humor. Imagine yourself letting a foriegn tourist drive your car for 4 hours to the DMV and then spending the day there with them. And then imagine doing this two more times. In general this is the type of reception we´ve received from most Chileano´s and on several occasions we´ve had to refuse offers of kindness to protect them from themselves. Sometimes they didn´t really think through how much they were giving away.

For our gratitude we took them out to diner, brought them flowers, and awarded them gifts of new windshield wipers on Berta´s car and an italian esspresso maker for Anita.

So what did the 3 sister´s do? They cooked us a feast of course. And then invited Mish and I to stay with them at their houses, Anita in Talca and Berta in Santiago. Oven baked scallops, salmon and potatos, chilean salad, and white wine.